Nicholas Mercuro - Böcker

The Law and Economics approach to law dominates the intellectual discussion of nearly every doctrinal area of law in the United States and its influence is growing steadily throughout Europe, Asia, and South America. Numerous academics and practitioners are working in the field with a flow of uninterrupted scholarship that is unprecedented, as is its influence on the law. Academically every major law school in the United States has a Law and Economics program and the emergence of similar programs on other continents continues to accelerate. Despite its phenomenal growth, the area is also the target of an ongoing critique by lawyers, philosophers, psychologists, social scientists, even economists since the late 1970s. While the critique did not seem to impede the development of the field, it certainly has helped it to become more sophisticated, inclusive, and mature. In this volume some of the leading scholars working in the field, as well as a number of those critical of Law and Economics, discuss the foundational issues from various perspectives: philosophical, moral, epistemological, methodological, psychological, political, legal, and social.The philosophical and methodological assumptions of the economic analysis of law are criticized and defended, alternatives are proposed, old and new applications are discussed.The book is ideal for a main or supplementary textbook in courses and seminars on legal theory, philosophy of law, jurisprudence, and (of course) Law and Economics.

Edited and introduced by a leading academic in the field, this is a new Routledge Major Work in the Critical Concepts in Law series. Law and Economics is a five-volume collection of canonical and cutting-edge research on the application of economic theory - primarily microeconomics and the basic concepts of welfare economics—to the examination of the formation, structure, processes and economic impact of law and legal institutions. Economic concepts have been applied to explain and clarify legal issues, not only with respect to competition law, but also in respect of a wide range of non-market activities, ranging from issues of tortuous liability and compensation, to family matters and crime. Law and Economics has influenced legislation and the development of Anglo-American case law and has become a central part of legal and economic education and research at some of the most prestigious universities on both sides of the Atlantic.This collection provides users with a collection of original articles that represent the source materials upon which each of the various Law and Economics schools of thought are founded—including the Chicago approach and the New Haven School; public-choice theory and modern civic republicanism; institutional law and economics and the new institutional economics; social norms and law and economics; and Austrian law and economics. As well as the editor’s selection of foundational texts, his collection also brings together and makes readily accessible the very best of cutting-edge research in Law and Economics.Including a newly written introduction to each school of thought, a comprehensive index, and a chronological table of the articles, Law and Economics is a unique and valuable research resource for both student and scholar.

In the spring on 2006, a workshop was held at Michigan State University to honour the career of A. Allan Schmid and his writings about how institutions evolve and how alternative institutions, including property rights, shape political relationships and impact economic performance. This edited book is the outcome of the workshop. It is a collection of original essays that explores several approaches to understanding the impact of alternative legal-economic institutions. The collection investigates questions such as: What are the similarities and differences among the various strands and approaches? Could parts of the different approaches be integrated to achieve greater insight into economic behaviour? Do different analytical problems require different approaches? Are the various strands of institutionalism actually saying the same things, but using different language and perspective? In gathering together authors who represent different approaches or strands of institutionalism, this book addresses several different issues such as transactions as the unit of observation, bounded rationality and learning, power issues embedded in the concept of efficiency, comparative empirical analysis, multiple equilibria and institutional diversity within a given environment, specification of institutional rules and structures, evolutionary perspectives, decentralized processes, and the significance of historical content.

This is an expanded second edition of Nicholas Mercuro and Steven Medema's influential book Economics and the Law, whose publication in 1998 marked the most comprehensive overview of the various schools of thought in the burgeoning field of Law and Economics. Each of these competing yet complementary traditions has both redefined the study of law and exposed the key economic implications of the legal environment. The book remains true to the scope and aims of the first edition, but also takes account of the field's evolution. At the book's core is an expanded discussion of the Chicago school, Public Choice Theory, Institutional Law and Economics, and New Institutional Economics. A new chapter explores the Law and Economics literature on social norms, today an integral part of each of the schools of thought. The chapter on the New Haven and Modern Civic Republican approaches has likewise been expanded. These chapters are complemented by a discussion of the Austrian school of Law and Economics. Each chapter now includes an "At Work" section presenting applications of that particular school of thought.By providing readers with a concise, noncritical description of the broad contours of each school, this book illuminates the fundamental insights of a field with important implications not only for economics and the law, but also for political science, philosophy, public administration, and sociology.

This volume integrates the essentials of ecology with law and economics. The authors evaluate the conventional remedies of environmental economics in the light of integrated perspective and look to alternative remedies for environmental problems.

This collection of 22 essays responds to the question: What are the most fundamental things you can say concerning the interrelations between the institutions of government and property? Authors were asked to address this question in a positive analysis and that their essay penetrate to the deepest levels of property-government organization.

The economic analysis of legal and regulatory issues need not be limited to the neoclassical economic approach. The expert contributors to this work employ a variety of heterodox legal-economic theories to address a broad range of legal issues. They demonstrate how these various approaches can lead to very different conclusions concerning the role of the law and legal intervention in a wide array of contexts. The schools of thought and methodologies represented here include institutional economics, new institutional economics, socio-economics, social economics, behavioral economics, game theory, feminist economics, Rawlsian economics, radical economics, Austrian economics, and personalist economics. The legal and regulatory issues examined include anti-trust and competition, corporate governance, the environment and natural resources, land use and property rights, unions and collective bargaining, welfare benefits, work-time regulation and standards, sexual harassment in the workplace, obligations of employers and employees to each other, crime, torts, and even the structure of government. Each contributor brings a different emphasis and provides thoughtful, sometimes provocative analysis and conclusions. Together, these heterodox insights will provide valuable supplementary reading for courses in law and economics as well as public policy and business courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

While much has been gained from the traditional legal scholars' doctrinal mode of analysis of the takings issue, this volume is presented in the belief that contributions from scholars from the various schools of thought that comprise law and economics can complement the traditional doctrinal approach to law. As the discipline of law and economics continue to advance, it remains heterodox; there are several vantage points from which to describe and analyze the interrelationships between law and economics. It is hoped that the analyses from the several vantage points provided here will complement the prodigious body of existing doctrinal, legal analysis of the takings issue and deepen the understanding of the jurisprudential questions and economic issues surrounding the takings issue. To this end, each contributor to this volume was selected as "representative" of one of the schools of thought comprising law and economics. In addition, each was provided with a collection of recent US Supreme Court cases (summarized in Chapter 1) along with President Reagan's Executive Order.The sole charge to each contributor was to conduct a legal-economic analysis of the cases and the President's Executive Order from the vantage point of their respective school of thought.

This collection of 22 commissioned essays from scholars across numerous fields responded to the question: What are the most fundamental things you can say concerning the interrelations between the institutions of government and property? Contributing authors were asked to address this question in a positive analysis and that their essay penetrate to the deepest (most fundamental) levels of property-government organization. Their contributions are illuminating.

The Law and Economics approach to law dominates the intellectual discussion of nearly every doctrinal area of law in the United States and its influence is growing steadily throughout Europe, Asia, and South America. Numerous academics and practitioners are working in the field with a flow of uninterrupted scholarship that is unprecedented, as is its influence on the law. Academically every major law school in the United States has a Law and Economics program and the emergence of similar programs on other continents continues to accelerate. Despite its phenomenal growth, the area is also the target of an ongoing critique by lawyers, philosophers, psychologists, social scientists, even economists since the late 1970s. While the critique did not seem to impede the development of the field, it certainly has helped it to become more sophisticated, inclusive, and mature. In this volume some of the leading scholars working in the field, as well as a number of those critical of Law and Economics, discuss the foundational issues from various perspectives: philosophical, moral, epistemological, methodological, psychological, political, legal, and social. The philosophical and methodological assumptions of the economic analysis of law are criticized and defended, alternatives are proposed, old and new applications are discussed.The book is ideal for a main or supplementary textbook in courses and seminars on legal theory, philosophy of law, jurisprudence, and (of course) Law and Economics.

In the spring on 2006, a workshop was held at Michigan State University to honour the career of A. Allan Schmid and his writings about how institutions evolve and how alternative institutions, including property rights, shape political relationships and impact economic performance. This edited book is the outcome of the workshop. It is a collection of original essays that explores several approaches to understanding the impact of alternative legal-economic institutions. The collection investigates questions such as: What are the similarities and differences among the various strands and approaches? Could parts of the different approaches be integrated to achieve greater insight into economic behaviour? Do different analytical problems require different approaches? Are the various strands of institutionalism actually saying the same things, but using different language and perspective? In gathering together authors who represent different approaches or strands of institutionalism, this book addresses several different issues such as transactions as the unit of observation, bounded rationality and learning, power issues embedded in the concept of efficiency, comparative empirical analysis, multiple equilibria and institutional diversity within a given environment, specification of institutional rules and structures, evolutionary perspectives, decentralized processes, and the significance of historical content.

While much has been gained from the traditional legal scholars' doctrinal mode of analysis of the takings issue, this volume is presented in the belief that contributions from scholars from the various schools of thought that comprise Law and Economics can complement the traditional doctrinal approach to law. As the discipline of Law and Economics continues to advance, it remains heterodox; there are several vantage points from which to describe and analyze the interrealtionships between law and economics. It is hoped that the analyses from the several vantage points provided here will complement the prodigous body of existing doctrinal, legal analysis of the takings issue and deepen the understanding of the jurisprudential questions and economic issues surrounding the takings issue. To this end, each contributor to this volume was selected as `representative' of one of the schools of thought comprising Law and Economics. In addition, each contributor was provided with a collection of recent United States Supreme Court cases (those summarized in Chapter 1 of this book) along with President Regan's Executive Order: The sole charge to each contributor was to conduct a legal-economic analysis of the cases and the President's Executive Order from the vantage point of their respective school of thought.